Bone Fracture and Repair

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing the four stages and cellular processes involved in bone fracture repair.

Fracture hematoma

A mass of clotted blood that forms at a fracture site after torn blood vessels inside the bone and periosteum cause bleeding.

Procallus

An actively growing connective tissue formed when a fracture hematoma is reorganized after regenerated blood capillaries infiltrate the fracture site.

Fibroblasts (in fracture repair)

Cells located within the procallus that produce collagen fibers to help connect the broken ends of the bone.

Chondroblasts (in fracture repair)

Cells in the newly growing connective tissue that form a dense regular connective tissue associated with cartilage.

Fibrocartilaginous (soft) callus

The repair structure that develops from the procallus and lasts at least 3 weeks.

Hard (bony) callus

A structure formed within a week as osteoprogenitor cells adjacent to the soft callus become osteoblasts and produce trabeculae of primary bone to replace the fibrocartilaginous callus.

Primary bone

The early bone composed of trabeculae produced by osteoblasts during hard callus formation, which is later replaced by compact bone.

Bone remodeling

The final phase of fracture repair where the hard callus persists for at least 3 to 4 months while osteoclasts remove excess bony material and compact bone replaces primary bone.